Shopping Subcompact Tractors - RK24 / John Deere 1025R / Kubota 23S / New Holland Workmaster 25S

let's see if we can get the old girl to start up on a cold morning i usually have to let these glow plugs light up for a while she's got some age on her now all right let's see here put that in neutral [Music] ah almost almost heat it up just a hair more that seems to help should be good to go now she's gonna be rough at first but she should like this time so four years ago when my father bought this property and we divided it up and my parents decided to build a house out here my wife and i decided to build a house out here we had a lot of work that needed to be done on this land and we knew we were going to need a machine a tractor so my father had a polaris razor 900 at the time and he found this little tractor here at a farm store and i think they basically did an indian trade and uh he swapped his polaris razor 900 for this for this tractor and um you know at the time this tractor was 17 years old and the uh the hour meter was broken at 148 hours i don't know it could just be disconnected to be honest i've never pulled the dash out to see but it it stopped working for some reason at 148 hours you know it's just an old well-used tractor but we needed something out here to get some work done with so he brought this thing home it's actually starting to snow out here didn't expect that this morning so this is a tc29 it's a 1999 model i believe tc29 new holland it's actually been a really good tractor i mean it was like i said it was well used when he got it you can tell by the bucket see how the edge of the bucket has just all mangled up you can see where the hook almost came out of the bucket where they've been lifting things with it it was mangled up pretty good the hood it's got a crack in it there's a crack down there at the bottom where something was dropped on it you can see a great big indention here and the framework for the loader it would take some serious force to do that so something hit that pretty hard i mean just a really well used tractor and like i said the hour meter broke it 1488 or was disconnected i guess could be but like i said it was uh it was a pretty uh inexpensive deal because he just swapped out a polaris for it and in the last four years we've we've actually used this tractor pretty hard we've done some things with this tractor that to be honest it just wasn't really designed to do you know he got this big box blade here to work on our driveways that's an actual footer which is starting to get a little bit big for a tiny tractor but it seems to handle it okay we've used the heck out of that loader moving gigantic rock and bedrock that we've been trenching up for our utility lines and what have you we've drug massive trees out of the woods a lot of those trees out through there were dead there's still some dead ones in there but when we got this place there was a lot of full grown ash and oak trees that were dead we did a lot of chainsawing and dragging them out of the woods with this thing i mean it's it's been beat on pretty good um we did fill the the rear tires up with some liquid ballast so that uh it would make it a little bit more capable because when we first got it we were doing such heavy duty work with it that the uh the tractor would kind of get tipsy but anyway you know i i did another full service on it this summer the only thing i haven't done yet is the front axle which needs to be done but um i have to be honest we haven't really had any serious trouble with this thing it hasn't broken down it's still hanging in there it's 21 years old now got a ton of hours on it it's been beaten on and it just keeps coming back for more it's been a fantastic tractor but age is starting to creep up on it and we've noticed that the clutch is starting to slip you know this was back in the uh this was back in the time when almost everything was gear shift and not shuttle shift either just straight manual shift and when you put the sub transmission in high range you can tell the clutch is starting to slip in medium it's not too bad and you can't really tell it in low range yet but when you put it in high range it's uh it's starting to slip pretty bad and as you know that's a pretty huge job to swap out the clutch on something like this because you actually have to disassemble the tractor itself you got to split this thing in half and it's just a pretty huge job for a homeowner and so that's kind of been an issue that's creeping up on us there's a leak up here and i haven't really dug into it yet to see exactly where it's coming from or how big of a job that would be but it's been leaking a little bit up there so there's a couple other issues too i mean it just it's gonna need some money put into it it's been a great tractor you know it's been uh you know just a really great tool for for us and for the people who owned it before us but i'm thinking that it's time maybe to move up to something more modern something newer so i've been kind of shopping around to see what's out there now this tractor is 29 horsepower 28 horsepower something like that tc 29 i believe was just shy of 30 horsepower and in today's world if you get a tractor that has this horsepower level you start to go to the uh tier four emissions that has the dpf on it and all that stuff so and to be honest with you all of the big jobs that we were doing around here dragging the huge trees and hauling giant loads of rock that we dug up out of the ground and all that kind of stuff those jobs hopefully are over with now so you know this tractor got all that stuff done for us it was plenty big enough you know maybe we were a little bit hard on it but it got the job done so i'm thinking that now that those jobs are out of the way and what's left is grading driveways pushing snow you know moving brush you know smaller jobs i probably don't need a bigger tractor something this size or smaller you know maybe even a tad smaller would be fine and if you stay below 26 horsepower you can avoid having the diesel particulate filter and all that stuff on your tractor so i'm kind of shopping like the compacts and the sub compacts i've really been looking at the sub compacts pretty hard and i think i think something like that would actually be great because then i could get you know the backhoe a grapple i could get some other attachments and keep the price in check so anyway i've been kind of looking around at some things first tractor i went to look at was the rural king 24 the rk24 and i think today i might go check out some kubotas you know and just kind of look at those and see what they've got to offer but anyway if you want to follow along i'll show you what i have seen so far and what i've noticed about these things got some uh some snow on the windshield now i love how this thing goes to a factory high idle i think i've mentioned that before so you can see my diesel exhaust fluid is uh getting really low and the plan was i was going to let it get low on purpose because i want to see how this thing will really react i mean it gives me messages on the screen saying that the engine won't restart if it runs out and it basically gives you a warning you've got so many miles to go but i'm curious uh well maybe i shouldn't maybe i shouldn't test it maybe i should just go ahead and fill it up i think uh some other guys said that it honestly will keep you from restarting the truck if you let it run all the way out so another reason that uh this is probably going to be my last dpf equipped truck i'm getting to the point where i'm already not real happy with all the emissions stuff that they put on these things nowadays and it's even more reason why i don't want to get a new tractor that has all this stuff on it yeah i mean on on some of those tractors um they don't have automatic regeneration so when it's time to do a regen you have to park the tractor and let it sit there you put it in regen mode and you have to let it sit there for like 30 minutes i mean who wants to let their tractor sit there and waste fuel for 30 minutes while you can't get any work done you know it's just ridiculous now some of the higher end tractors apparently do have um automatic regen sort of like this truck does where you can still use it while it's doing its regen process but usually those tractors are a little bit more expensive um some of them that i looked at like for instance the rk37 really nice tractor really nice price range but i think it's one of those where you have to let it just sit there and do regen cycles so another reason to stay at 26 horsepower or below when you're getting a new tractor i guess huh now one thing about this rk24 it does not have tilt steering it doesn't look like the 37 over there does so you don't have a tilt steering wheel which would have been kind of nice and you don't have a separate seat back here for your backhoe you have to raise this seat up and flip it around which from experience can be kind of a pain in the neck but um you know other than that it has some features though that are kind of rare i mean look at this you've got standard valves back here uh so you got this function back here the standard which is optional on a lot of other tractors kind of nice arm rests on the seat just trying to check it out here again you do have the mechanical thumb standard these are 27 inch tires but i think you can get uh you can get up to like a uh i want to say a 32 or 33 if you go with a turf tire you can get an ag tire on there which is a little bit taller and more narrow so you've got some tire options um yeah i mean all in all it's a pretty pretty nice tractor especially for the money hmm what do you think [Music] it's got a nice led work light here i noticed that it has the skid steer quick attach on the loader i mean you really do get a lot of things that are optional on other brands as standard equipment on these got a cup holder 12 volt outlet i mean it really is a nice tractor especially for the money and of course these are made by tym so you know they've been making stuff for lots of brands for a long long long time so it's not like it's going to be a poor quality tractor you know you can get parts and service right here at the store for them so i mean it's got a lot of good things going for it for sure i would just have to do something with this valve this control here all that would have to be relocated for some reason this camera just does not want to focus today i think it's cold too sorry about that pop the hood you can see the battery it's down there low but it is in the front coolant bottle you do have the debris screen you can pull out this is the exact same yanmar engine that they use in the john deere um 1025r looks like the exact same engine so air filter i mean everything looks like it's pretty pretty easy to locate for maintenance and everything do have a metal hood on it i guess these side panels look like they can come off as well [Applause] not bad you know i was looking at this and it looks like the way that they've got this mounted it does have some adjustability built into it so it looks like that you can kind of clock those controls upward a little bit and even if that wasn't enough i mean it's just got two bolts here that go into this bracket so see there so it would be you know if you're any good at fabricating at all it would be a piece of cake to move this a little bit but i like i like seeing that there's some adjustability already built in there so that may not be as big of an issue as i thought you know to do something with that now the only thing that uh of course i guess it's something that most of these hydrostatic tractors don't have is well i say that but i was talking about the auto throttle you know where you can set it the harder you press you know the more the throttle increases automatically not really 100 sure if this tractor has that or not i don't think it does that'd be kind of cool but but yeah i mean i'm really impressed with this i've kind of been looking this thing over for about 10 minutes now i'm really impressed with it especially for the money this is uh number one on my list right now i turn the seat around so i can kind of get a feel for what the operator station feels like when you're using the backhoe and actually it's it's pretty comfy i don't feel cramped in here at all i don't feel uncomfortable not in a bad position you know this would work out really good actually so you know the average size fella would have no trouble at all [Applause] nice here's a little deer 1025 r obviously they've got the deer proprietary system to hook the bucket up does have a work light on it diesel fuel feel is up on the fender which is much nicer than being up on the hood you can see where the control is for the bucket over there on the fender which is much nicer this is a comfortable machine i sat on a little while ago and it was really comfy uh the tires seemed to be a little bit smaller than the tires on the rk tractor i looked at earlier got some real tiny little tires on it still runs the yanmar engine it's got the cruise control setting and all that on it so i mean i was kind of looking up under the engine compartment for a maintenance issues or you know you know like maintenance access i guess but uh the way you open the hood on these is a little more difficult come around front you got a nice brush guard hydraulic lines are run nice and neat and over on the right side you can see where the remotes are where the function valves are you know and you've got these things that kind of dangle down here i can see where some guys are talking about this being a potential issue especially if you're doing some stuff you know off in the woods or whatever you get sticks and stumps coming up under your tractor that could be a problem especially with the low ground clearance these things have on them but i do like where the pedals are kind of like the rk tractor very comfortable very nice easy to get to there's the oil filter and everything i mean it's a neat looking little tractor it's got the stuff you need 12 volt outlet cupholders not too bad now this tractor doesn't have the rear remotes like the rk tractor it comes with them standard on the john deere it's an option so if you want some you know function back here you got to add an add you know pay more money for it so i guess if you're going to look at tractors you would be remiss if you didn't at least look at the green ones right and there was a dealer on the way so i decided to whip in there real quick and check them out you know i like the john deere's i don't really you know have a lot of dislike form or anything but in those subcompacts i just i don't know they seemed a little narrower uh the tires were smaller there were some things about the design that i'm just not real crazy about to be honest and you know i asked him about the pricing and seems like the pricing's a few thousand dollars more than the other ones i've looked at so far so i don't know i'm not going to count john deere out just yet but after i looked at it for a while i think i'm going to keep it down lower on the list so let's check out the number one selling brand in these subcompacts there's some kubotas this one's a 2380. i really wanted to look at a 2680 but it doesn't look like they have a 2680 in stock coved and all the other stuff going on this year has caused supply to be really low on a lot of this stuff but just looking around back here i mean it looks pretty robust there's a lot of things here that are similar to some of the other brands and there's a lot of things that are different than the other brands but uh again you know you got the small tires kind of like what we had over there on the john deere really tiny tires up front too so the ground clearance ends up being pretty low you know i'm not really sure this would handle a five foot box blade i don't know maybe the 2680 i should wait until i can find a 2680 probably fuel feel right here on the fender where it belongs joystick over here on the fender where it belongs this is interesting so instead of the uh traditional looking treadle pedal you got just a pedal here for reverse flat floor board and a pedal for forward that's kind of interesting they may have been doing this for a long time i'm a rookie at this i'm just now shopping these things but this is the first time i've seen it like this that's interesting this might actually be better than having just a big rocker control especially if you got big feet like me kind of like the uh the overall you know aesthetics of it and everything you know you've got a lot of leg room here because the dash is kind of vertical interesting see where the remotes are kind of the valves are kind of out of the way they're not hanging down here like the john deere they're kind of up you know in a safer location there i like that yeah the leg room is pretty amazing on this tractor like i said you know the way that that's so vertical there the way the design is i mean and i kind of see i can get to that and then i don't know i like the i like the legroom on this tractor like it's really comfortable armrests are where they need to be yeah not too bad looks like it does have a tilt wheel got your headlight switch over there [Laughter] throttle interesting it's funny because these sub compacts have so many things in common but yet they have so many differences too you know looks like they have a whole lot of the 23 s's this one's got a little backhoe on it i've got a ton of those i wish i had some 2680s over here i guess those are all sold out it's probably their more popular model but one thing that i'm noticing for sure as i look at the kubota's john deere's is that a lot of the things on here are optional that you get on the rk standard so there really is a value there with those rural king tractors made by tym all right so this is the 23s that has the backhoe on it and what i'm noticing here is that the seat is really different because obviously on these the seat flips around so you can use the backhoe but what it's doing is it's giving me the sensation of pushing me forward you know it's like the seat cushion does uh it's got more of a forward tilt to it i don't really like that that one over there without the backhoe was comfy this one is not comfy i don't like it and the more i sit here and play with this the more i don't like this either because what happens is when i go to hit reverse my shoe gets caught up in there and i have to lift my whole leg up and then hit it lift my whole leg up and then you know i had it would wear out your leg if you're just on the pedal and you try to slide back to the reverse pedal you can't do it you got to lift up and that's kind of annoying from an ergonomic standpoint that's why it's good to sit on these things and spend some time sitting on them and you know kind of get a feel for them so a couple of things on this backhoe model that i don't really like to be honest and they also don't have a skid steer style quick attach you know the way these kubotas are made you just have one big cylinder here to tilt your bucket and the rest of it looks like it's pinned on you've got that little mechanism there it's kind of a kubota proprietary looking thing but this would not be good for swapping out multiple implements on the front here so here is a used 2601 this is a b2601 it's a 2019 model it's a used tractor they're asking 13 000 for it it does have the skid steer style quick attach for the bucket up there the tires are obviously larger this is more of what i'm kind of thinking in my mind that i would like to have as far as size and capability ground clearance and all that but like i said it's a used tractor it's two years old now and they're asking 13 grand for it which is more than i can get a new rk tractor for so i don't know but you can see this one's got that older style i guess it's the older style treadle pedal on it and i just don't really like that i don't know i know some guys love it but i just this is something that i don't really like i don't like that design it's not very user friendly to me but i don't know i mean it's a pretty nice looking tractor but i just can't really bring myself to pay that kind of money for something that's already two years old and i don't know how many hours are on it oh it's only got 35 hours on according to the meter so it hasn't been used a whole lot but uh it's pretty dirty and it's got a lot of scratches and stuff all over it so those 35 hours were apparently pretty rough hours but uh you do have a toolbox back here cup holder basic seat looks like it's got an ag style tire on the front that doesn't really match the industrial tires on the rear so i don't know if somebody has swapped out the front tires for something different or what interesting so i climbed aboard the 2601 the first thing i noticed is look at that rubber mat moving around i mean what in the world what's going on here this is a two-year-old tractor that has only 35 hours on it and it's already coming apart so i don't know what the deal is with that either somebody was super super rough on this thing or these tractors are just not what they're cracked up to be starting to think the ladder might be true and that treadle pedal as they call it i mean that's just i don't know again i guess this is personal preference but i just i can't stand that you know some people do it like like this where they put their foot under there when they want to go it's just it's ridiculous i don't know i mean i just i don't see why it's not it's just as easy to put two petals up here like all the other brands put two petals up there where they belong now this doing this crap right here will just give you a calf muscle cramp by the end of the day so i don't know i gave these things a fair shake and checked them out but honestly i'm just not really impressed with them there's a lot of stuff on these kubotas that's expensive it's optional you got to really go up in series to get some decent features i'm not real wild about how the backhoe attaches i don't really like the seat on the backhoe versions and above everything else the hydrostatic throttle control is a deal breaker for me the new style may be a little bit better but still i just i don't like it so i think i'm going to cross kubota off the list all right so i stopped at a new holland dealer and i found one workmaster25s this place over here is a very big agricultural area so most of the tractors they sell are going to be the bigger ones but they do have this one little subcompact and again you don't have the rear remotes i guess that's probably optional toolbox over here on the side you can unlike some tractors in this class you can use your mid pto or your mid and rear pto together or just the rear pto so that's kind of nice if you've got a mower if you're gonna do some mowing and you've got some implements out back too or whatever i don't know i mean this it's a pretty simple looking mower um pretty simple looking tractor this one's actually a used one you can see where it's got some stuff in there people been getting on and off of it but it does have good leg room it's not quite as roomy and spacious as the kubota operator station but the pedals are where they belong you know you got your forward and reverse pedals over here we can easily get to them so that's a major plus very simple controls on this one in fact i don't see a cruise control feature unless yeah here here it is cruise control feature must be down here but the operator station and the layout to the controls is very simple on the new holland not a whole lot to it you notice that the joystick is up here but at least it's out of the way you know it's not really like hitting my leg and getting all up in my way and everything so that's that's an improvement over the rural king as far as that goes see your two wheel drive four wheel drive selector over there the seat feels pretty comfy but then again this one doesn't have a backhoe on it so it's really kind of hard to say but it has really really tiny tires this is the smallest tire on the front that i've seen on any of the subcompacts that i've looked at so far which is very interesting i don't know what year model this is since it's a used one but it does have a yanmar engine in it i think yanmar pretty much supplies the engines for all of these tractors it doesn't matter what the brand is you're probably going to have a yanmar engine in it the bucket is a pin on it doesn't have a quick disconnect on this one but i think that's optional on here so once again you're getting into that situation where the rk tractors just they've got a lot of standard features that are optional on all these other you know name brands if you want to call it that the more known name brands you got to pay extra to get stuff that the arcade gives you for less money that's the thing about it you get all that stuff standard on the royal king tractor and it's less money you know something like this is going to cost the same amount or more and you got to buy all the extra stuff so so i don't know i mean it it's have a quick park loader you can see your pin here that you can remove got your leg here you can swing down you can park the loader pretty quickly i don't know i mean it's a nice little tractor but i don't see anything on the new holland that sets it apart from the other ones i don't see anything on here that just really makes me you know gravitate toward this one so that was kind of interesting it was good just to sit on them and you know kind of get a feel for the operator station and where the controls are and what it would be like to actually use the thing for a few hours each day or something there's a few more brands i'd like to go check out myanmar and cody and a couple other ones that you know they're kind of lesser heard of brands but they're actually pretty good tractors according to what people tell me so who knows we may go check out a whole lot of different brands you know this it'd be a pretty big purchase and something you know i plan on keeping for the rest of my life so i want to do some good research and make sure that i get what i want so but anyway it's cold out here so i'm gonna go back in the house i think but appreciate you guys watching stay tuned because there's more coming thanks

Channel: OFFRD

Views: 173,746

Keywords: New Holland, Workmaster, 25S, New Holland 25S, RK 24, RK 37, RK37, rural king tractor, Deere, 1025R, John Deere, Subcompact, Compact tractor, Best tractor, Kubota, Kubota BX2680, Compact tractors

Id: p69gX04NfDY

Length: 31min 28sec (1888 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 09 2021